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THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 

ASTOR. LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATIONS 



THE PILGRIM TERCENTENARY EXHIBITION IN 
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 



By Victor Hugo Paltsits 

Chief of the American History Division and Keeper of Manuscripts 



IN THE Main Exhibition Room (113), for a period of three months, end- 
ing about March 1, 1921, there is on free public view an extensive assemblage 
of books, pictures, personalia, maps, views, commemoration and celebration 
orations, medals, cards, programmes, etc., relating to the Mayflower Pilgrims 
in their homes and haunts, in England, Holland, and America, down through 
the entire period during which Plymouth Colony existed as a separate body 
politic. 

This exhibition sharply differentiates the Pilgrims from the more exten- 
sive and better known Puritan Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bay, which 
absorbed the Plymouth entity under William and Mary. It endeavors to pre- 
sent, within its historical limitations and in systematic form, a birdseye view of 
the principal books and other evidences relating to the founders of the Plym- 
outh Colony in New England, as more particularly hereafter described. The' 
exhibition fills 28 large showcases and 8 large standards, the objects being 
accompanied, when necessary, by succinct yet appropriate descriptive labels. 
Two showcases call attention tOy"Some background factors in Pilgrim 
history." Here are shown a manuscript of Wycliffe's New Testament, written 
about A. D. 1380, the earliest in America and believed to be the finest in exist- 
ence of so early a date; the Coverdale Bible, the first complete printed English 
Bible, 1535; and the first edition of the Genevan or so-called Breeches Bible, 
1560, a version which the Pilgrims commonly used. In this group one sees 
the works of Dr. John Whitgift, arch antagonist of the Puritan reformation, 
out of which the Pilgrims sprang, and the parliamentary journals under Queen 
Elizabeth's reign, which show the measures employed to hold in check the 
movement. Modern studies about the early English dissenters, leaders of 
different factions such as Robert Browne founder of the Brownists, John Smyth 
the Baptist; Henry Barrow the Separatist, and John Penry the Pilgrim Martyr, 
follow in succession. A large part of one showcase contains an array of the 
publications connected with the Martin Marprelate Controversy, in 1588-1590, 
which as a campaign of pamphleteering "clearly belongs to the great Puritan 
movement" in Elizabeth's reign and "was of a nature to have weight chiefly 
among the more ignorant classes." At least it had the masses of England by 
the ears. The title-pages are often quaint and the spurious places of printing 
are sometimes funny. 




F6? 



The "background factors" are followed by two cases of "General Works 
in Pilgrim History"; first place is given to the monumental bibliographical 
work of Dr. Henry jNIartyn Dexter, on "Congregationalism as seen in its Lit- 
erature" (1880), followed by the works that treat of the Pilgrims in their 
three homes, arranged in chronological order from 1839 to the present year. 
Another showcase is devoted to "The Pilgrims in England," in which there 
is a small piece of wood from the railings in the old Town Hall court room 
of Boston, Lincolnshire, before which refugee Separatists, including Brewster 
and Bradford, were tried in 1609. 

The two cases devoted to "The Pilgrims in Holland" are well worth care- 
ful study by students, because they show newly discovered or otherwise little 
known materials. A case is devoted to the Leyden congregation and John 
Robinson, their pastor. There are reproductions of manuscripts showing Rob- 
inson's genuine handwriting, only recently determined, and also what was 
formerly believed to be his signature but is now known to be otherwise. A 
part of his wife's will with her signature is shown, and also a document by two 
Dutch theologians, who make a declaration about Robinson's intentions for 
the removal of a goodly number of his flock from Leyden and his reasons for 
doing so. Robinson's own works are shown. The second Holland case is 
devoted entirely to Elder \A'illiani Brewster and his Leyden printing press. 
Among the Pilgrim company which first fled from England to Amsterdam, 
then removed to Leyden, were three men who were printers, namely Elder 
William Brewster, Edward Winslow, and John Reynolds. Brewster's Le)^den 
printery was in existence only 2>2> months, from October, 1616, to June, 1619, 
during which period some 19 books or tracts were issued from it and widely 
disseminated. The English monarch, James L was wroth at some of these 
products and, through Sir Dudley Carleton. his ambassador to the States- 
General, sought the arrest of Brewster. However, through an error, Thomas 
Brewer, the financial backer of the press, was put under arrest, whilst Brewster 
escaped and his printing materials were removed from Choir Alley to a garret 
in Brewer's house, in Belfry Lane, which was near the Leyden residence of the 
Rev. John Rol^inson. Only four of the books Brewster issued, three in Latin 
and one in Dutch, bore his name as the printer, and these came from his shop in 
1617. Later it was the part of wisdom in him not to reveal himself. Curiously 
enough, a copy of the only Dutch book he printed was once sold in" New York 
at auction, then disappeared, and now apparently no copy is known even to 
the specialists. A rather unusual feature of the Brewster case is an inventory 
of his own private library, analyzed by such able scholars as Dr. Justin Winsor 
and Dr. Henry M. Dexter. The latter ascertained by laborious research that 
75 per cent of the books in the library were printed before 1621, and that 
Brewster owned in his New England home at least as many as eleven books, 
products of his own Leyden shop. 

The books which tell of the "Principles and Purposes of the Pilgrims" 
and describe their "Manners and Customs" fill two showcases. Here and in 
other parts of the exhibition may be seen pictures of their household furnish- 
ings, such as chairs, cradles, chests, pots, pewter dishes, and personal belong- 
ings as clocks, swords, spinning-wheels, and other relics. 

The celebration of Forefathers' Day was first instituted in 1769 by a 
newly-organized "Old Colony Clul).'' A celebration has since been held every 
year at Plymouth, Mass., with but few exceptions, under various auspices, 

r' ' ' ' • 

) ' APR 18* 1921 



mainly, however, the Town, one of its churches, or by the Pilgrim Society 
organized in 1820, and celebrations have become general in many other places. 
The most notable addresses delivered on these occasions are exhibited. The 
celebrations of the tercentenary recently concluded in Holland and England, and 
those more recently held in the United States, are well represented in the show. 

The large standards are devoted to pictures, maps, and other media for 
visualizing the historical associations of the Pilgrims in their three homes and 
their other temporary stepping stones to the New World. Special attention 
is called to "The Pilgrims in Art,'" a rather comprehensive lot. including the 
fine original oil painting of "Pilgrims going to Church." by George Henry 
Boughton. A large painting of "The Mayflower," painted in oils in 1920, has 
been lent by the marine artist, James Gale Tyler. 

The largest representation is, naturally, given to "The Pilgrims in New 
England." there being eleven showcases devoted to the Pilgrim colony. Before 
the Pilgrims came over and. in fact, before their leaders in Holland had planned 
a removal. Captain Jolin Smith had fixed upon the naming of New Engfend 
in his tract, "A Description of New England" (London, 1616) accompanied 
by the first map of New England. The Library devotes a case to those works 
of Smith that relate to the landfall of the Mayflower Pilgrims, and descriptive 
labels tell about them. Smith's writings also had a profound influence upon 
American exploration and settlement; they really constitute a group of factors 
in Pilgrim history. 

Two showcases of popular interest are related to the ship "Alayflower." 
All pictures of the ship are merely artists' idealizations, since no original pic- 
ture or model is known. There were at least forty vessels of the name which 
sailed from England between the years 1550 and 1770. Moreover, besides the 
"Mayflower" of the Pilgrims "at least three and probably more voyages were 
made by other 'Mayflowers' to America during the first half of the seventeenth 
century." An upright case shows a small ship's model, made from a beam 
of old Scrooby ]\Ianor House, the English home of Elder William Brewster. 
This model was lent by Pilgrim Church of New York City. 

The rarest books in Plymouth Colony history are shown together in a case. 
"A briefe Relation of the Discovery and Plantation of New England." the 
"Sermon preached at Plimmoth." on December 9. 1621, by Robert Cushman, 
and the so-called Mourt's "Relation or Journall," all three were printed in Lon- 
don in 1622. Then there is the interesting tract of Edward Winslow, later the 
third governor of the colony, namely, his "Good Newes from New-England'' 
(1624), which continues the story of events from November, 1621, to Sep- 
tember 10. 1623. Other outstanding books in this section are John Cotton's 
"The Planters Plea" (1630); William Wood's "New Englands Prospect" 
(1635); Thomas Morton's antagonistic book on "New English Canaan" 
(1637); Governor Wlnslow's "Hypocrisie Unmasked" (1646), and its reissue 
as "Danger of Tolerating Levellers in a Civill State" (1649); also his "New 
Englands Salamander discovered" (1647). 

Pilgrim singing or psalmody deserves a word, ^\llen the Pilgrims came 
over, they brought with them Henry Ainsworth's metrical version of the psalms 
and the edition of 1618, said to be the edition they used, is exhibited, side by 
side with the "Bay Psalm Book," so called because it originated in Massachu- 
setts-Bay Colony, the first book printed in English America, and one of only 
ten copies known. The "Bay Psalm Book" was soon revised and was printed 



first in the new form at Cambridge. ]Mass., in 1651. The only known copy is 
exhibited. This version remained in use in New England down to about the 
end of the colonial era. Its connection with the Pilgrims and Plymouth is its 
adoption by the latter when the two colonies were merged into one body politic 
at the end of the seventeenth century. 

Before 1669, when Nathaniel Morton's "New-Englands Memoriall," was 
published, down to 1767, when the second volume of Gov. Thomas Hutchin- 
son's "History of the Province of Massachusetts-Bay" appeared from the press, 
there had been used for historical works by others, a most unusual and impor- 
tant unpublished history. This was Gov. William Bradford's "History of 
Plimouth Plantation." Morton who had used it freely was Bradford's nephew. 
The Rev. Dr. Thomas Prince who quoted from it in 1736, had it in his own 
library, from which it disappeared about the beginning of the American Revolu- 
tion and its whereabouts was unknown for three quarters of a century, until 
discovered in the Bishop of London's Library at Fulham, England. It was; 
after previous unsuccessful trials, finally restored to Massachusetts in May, 
1897, and is the most treasured possession of its kind in the State House. The 
books of the authors who had used the Bradford manuscript before its dis- 
appearance are represented in the Bradford group. A facsimile of the manu- 
script "History" is there, and books with texts of Bradford's other known 
writings, namely, his "Dialogue on Church Government" and his fragmentary 
letter book. The chief printed editions of his "History," from the first (1856) 
to the last (1912j, both of these under the patronage of the Massachusetts His- 
torical Society, are shown. Facsimiles of Bradford's baptismal record at Aus- 
terfield, England, of his intention of marriage at Amsterdam and the record 
of its taking place there, and a recently-discovered power of attorney dated 
at Leyden, July 24, 1620, are not without passing interest. 

The Plymouth Colony records have been printed under competent editors. 
The court orders, laws, and judicial acts occupy the larger space; but there are 
volumes devoted to the lands. Indians, commissioners of the United Colonies, 
and miscellanea. All are shown, as are also the printed town records, wills, 
and epitaphs. 

A case is devoted to Capt. Myles Standish. The Standish portrait shown 
is not authentic, although often given as his picture in books. The only undis- 
puted portrait of a Mayflower Pilgrim is the painting made in 1651, in England, 
of Governor Edward Winslow. In the Standish group are also shown for- 
geries of letters purporting to have been written by him. John Alden. Francis 
Cooke, Isaac Allerton. Capt. Richard More, Peregrine White, and other Pil- 
grims have representation in another showcase. The last cases devoted to their 
history in New England present in chronological order the compiled histories 
of Cape Cod, the county and town of Plymouth, and the guide books pictured 
for the tourist. 

Finally, two cases show "The Pilgrims in Literature." Here are the Pil- 
o-rim novels of Jane Austin, Hezekiah Butterworth, Mrs. Cheney, Frank M. 
Gregg, Miss Dix, Motley, and others; another growing group is the Pilgrim 
in drama or pageantry; and the last is the chief literary group, namely the Pil- 
grim in poetry, which includes Mrs. Hemans, Holmes, Longfellow, Lowell, 
Whittier, and other poets of lesser distinction. 



Pd 



18 I 



PRINTED AT THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY 
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